It's only failure when you finally give up

Failed. Four months ago my campaign to raise funds to build a mobile phone app HappiJar ran out of time. It did not reach the intended target of £15,500. It's hard for me to say 'I failed' but I did. I failed at Kickstarter. I refused to go back to the drawing board and reboot my quest one more time. The thought of it doing it again still makes me feel queasy today.

Sharing my idea to the world was not scary for me. The process of my ideas being rejected by others just taught me about how and how not to promote my idea to people. So why did I not just return to the eternally optimistic timeline of Kickstarterland with my new found knowledge? Because I thought that I'd lose friends. That's why.

E-Begging. Rattling a tin for the future benefit of my ideas and dreams; felt like begging. Worse than that, some friends may have [possibly will have] taken a request to pledge on my idea as a personal attack on the importance of their own future plans. "What mate? You want to build a widget? Do it then... but don't ask me for any money. I have dreams and plans of my own. I think I'll invest in them instead". And they do.

Why? So why do we do it? To feel complete? Marketing guru Seth Godin believes that you cannot consider yourself an artist until you 'ship' your art. So what this means is that you could be the most talented inventor with a beautiful style and mind - but until you share your 'art' you cannot call yourself an artist. That could be one reason. Another reason is that crowd funding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo have hundreds, thousands and millions of potential investors just waiting to become part of something big. Money may not be burning holes in their pockets, but a compelling feature of the 'crowd' is that you are more likely to find fans of your idea or product. And we all know that good ideas spread right?

Experience. For me it was a little more basic. I needed the experience, a challenge and ultimately a goal to shoot for. What I didn't realise was the toll it takes on your work, health and relationships. Most of us entrepreneurial types [and I use this term loosely] are stubborn and overwhelmingly passionate about our ideas. We have to be to survive the knock backs and disappointments. What I come to realise first hand was that an entrepreneurs support network is as essential to our survival as air and water are. When our foundations shake and fracture, when our loved ones finally begin to lose faith in our resolve, purpose and sanity, it feels like our confidence and mojo are being stolen away when we need them the most. So pursuing an idea or crowd funded project is a gamble; and we wage our most important life assets on it.

Confidence. So please trust me when I say; someone who has mustered the will, confidence and the self belief to act upon their dreams will not be put off by a temporary state such as 'failure'. BUT. But, what will bring them to a grinding halt is the belief [not necessarily the realisation] that their loved ones no longer have confidence in their abilities to succeed. It's like kryptonite. 

Will I ever go back to crowd funding with HappiJar? I hope we don't have to.  Kickstarter enabled me to find a bunch of fans and one of them joined me as partner in the venture. Together we are self funding the project and have already begun constructing the app with artists, programmers and DJ's. It's going to be awesome. Still though, the road ahead is a long and perilous one. I don't know if I will get the support I need from everybody like when I was crowd sourcing my idea... but so long as certain key individuals are near me when I need them the most. I am Iron Man.  

Note: I decided to leave this page as it was when I raising funds. If you want to go and see our website which it building a following in readiness for our launch this year - then click on this www.happijar.com

It would be great to hear from you.

Glen

HappiJar

Day Twenty-Three- 15% The Irresistible Force Meets the Immovable Object

Since the beginning - even at concept design stage [see concept sketches below], we have been inundated with positive comments about what HappiJar could do for lots of people.

No one was imagining that HappiJar would become one of those 'must have' apps like your camera or email. The open mindedness of those we revealed the design to was astounding. HappiJar became an irresistible force and we felt compelled to push it forward into the world.

It took us about 3 months to pull together the Kickstarter campaign, then we launched it. Since then we have not stopped for a minute.

After launch we hovered around the Twitter hashtag - Kickstarter. We appeared to have joined a very long line of other Kickstarter's who were also raising funds for their projects, and there seemed to be a back lash. If you do a very quick online search you will find articles from bloggers and writers who are sick of giving to their friends, 'begging' for a miserly £5 or more to help fulfil their dreams. This is understandable that some of us might feel this way.

But there is a another side to the story. Constantly asking for friends to share links to your projects and talk to others about it; takes it's toll too. Chasing a dream requires a herculean effort, and I defy anyone who has attempted this before to complain when they see another taking on his or her quest.

Some dreams are small, and others are life changing. You will see every kind if you flick through some projects on a crowd funding site.

So here we are, 23 days into a 30 day campaign and it appears our project is fast becoming an Immovable Object! We are still searching for the stick of dynamite that will get this project rolling again.

One thing that has moved me more than I thought possible though was those who have openly shared my project and backed it against the odds. I really didn't expect the amount of help I have gotten so far.

Lots to do this week again.

Day Twenty-Two - 15% Being happy is about giving.

First draft for our new Kickstarter introduction. You like?

Our app is going to blow your socks off. Smart science and philosophical folk have for many years, studied and tested the affects of what gratitude has on our general well being and happiness. Entire nations are investing millions of pounds into research grants just to find out how to make you all happy with the least amount of effort.

Which is quite funny really, as a little effort is all it requires to feel happier. Gratitude plays a large part in our ability to live and appreciate what is happening around us. Be mindful, and then thankful for the all the great stuff that we experience enhances our outlook on life. We can trick ourselves into being more positive just be simply logging into life more!

It has been said that only 33% of our overall variation in life satisfaction [happiness to you and me] can be attributed to genetics alone. Another 20% linked directly to how we were brought up and 'hard wired' to view the world. I say 'hard wired', but I mean natural instinct.

Together 53% of our 'happiness' can be fixed to a certain degree. The rest? Well that's up for grabs. You can make yourself over 40% more satisfied with your life just be thinking positively. Amazing eh?

Next time you feel down, ask yourself: Do I really need to feel this way in this moment? The answer has to be no. Never.

HappiJar represents just one of the ways that you can proactively train your brain to unconsciously search for what it is that makes you grateful and as a result, happier!

Please carry out this experiment yourself to prove to that you have the power. Do you recall when you got your very first car? Exciting times. Do you also recall from then on every other car on the road seemed to be not only the same make and model but also the same colour? This is not the universe conspiring against you. This is your subconscious at work. You didn't notice them before until you had become mindful of it. This is the very reason why counting your blessings and being grateful for the little things in life is so powerful.

HappiJar provides you with a canvas to become more grateful.

Pay it forward. This is the effect of when someone thanks YOU for a particularly nice deed. It is human nature to feel massive contentment that your actions [indirectly or directly] have helped to make others happy. So as a result, it has been scientifically proven that you are many times more likely to go out and instigate your very own random act of kindness just to feel that buzz again! So let's get this 100% straight. Those of us who do nice things feel an urge to do more as a result of being appreciated and thanked.

To put this simply. The happiest of us, are the ones who do more for others. HappiJar allows you to not only record your own favourite 'things to do' but thank your close friends and family for being awesome - thus inspiring them to do even more good. Seriously. Who doesn't want that in their life?

Day Twenty-One - 15% Gratitude. I don't get it...

It's not the first time we have heard this. Probably four times since we have taken our design on the road.

"I don't get HappiJar.", "What is it supposed to do?",  "Really? Can it do that?" "I'd get bored using it I think".

As a designer, these questions horrified me. You see, if we had not communicated the idea and our end goal with clarity then we really had little to no chance of success on Kickstarter.

From our last blog post we already concluded that our pitch may not have been as focussed as it should. The 'angle' had not been fully explained. My mind is cast back to a business networking group and being told by someone who I greatly respect that "so long as they live, some people will never 'get it' Glen". The gratitude thing.

Image courtesy of
Londoneats.wordpress.com

They are likely to be the ones to benefit from the generosity of others, but never quite realise that 'paying this forward'  is essential for the wave of gratitude and happiness to propagate fully. Vis-à-vis - everyone prospers as a result.

So in reality, when I am told by another that "I don't get it..". I know exactly what kind of person I am dealing with straight away.

We still need to help ourselves with the Kickstarter pitch though - and this will happen over the weekend. We will never be able to convince an ungrateful person to suddenly begin journalling about or be thankful towards the things and the people they love in their lives. What we CAN do is remind those of us who 'get it' that practising gratitude on HappiJar is a great way to not only make ourselves feel awesome, but by paying it forward and spreading the happiness around - we get to see others smile too :)

Happiness is like strawberry jam. You can't spread it around without getting a little on yourself too.

Have a great Friday!

Day Twenty - 15% I'm Awesome. Back Me.

We missed our blog post yesterday. As you might have guessed we are thinking really hard on how to increase the coverage of our project on kickstarter and make our target.

It's only fair that after reading numerous articles on what makes a great kickstarter campaign and what not to do - [many of which we discovered before our project began] that 10 days away from either an epic come back or the slow slide to failure and a big rethink... we regale you with experiences as they happen. Hence this blog.

Here are what most articles on running successful campaigns say and we have added our own points too;

1. Personality. Introduce yourself. Stumbling upon a campaign is not good enough. you also need to convert a few visitors to sharers and backers. Include yourself in the first paragraph and or the video. Probably both. Use the naturally infectious enthusiasm for your idea to convince people that you are worth a few quid pledge. We decided to use the main video to introduce the product as best as we could. Comments have been really favourable so far. It has been described as clean, professional and happy :) and we have had over 250 video views! Conversion to pledges has not been so impressive though. The general view though.. is that my personality has not shone through. Which is a shame because I am delightful. 
2. The Angle. Choose your pitch wisely. You are not on Kickstarter to peddle t-shirts. Unless of course you are on kickstarter to peddle t-shirts. Then please - peddle away. No, for example if your product will resolve a problem that we all face on a day to day basis, then highlight that. The rest is just smoke and mirrors. Be specific on why your project simply must. Not. Fail. Or the world will implode etc. Our project has been designed to help people feel more grateful and happier as a result. A major hurdle for us is that we as humans never really think about happiness until we don't have it. Then - we as people will not naturally resort to anything technological to help out. It's a hard sell. So how did we solve that problem?  Wellll.... to be honest I don't think we have. Our angle has always been SURPRISE!! Really? Yes, an app can help you do this - look how cute it is and why hasn't this been funded already. You can tell that our angle needs adjustment.
3. Network. It goes without saying that meeting people face to face is far more powerful. That's why everybody recommend that you introduce yourself in person on the video. Going out to your local community and impressing yourself upon people as an enthusiastic entrepreneur who can't but help save you from [insert angle/pitch/problem] is very powerful. It builds an awareness for the product that might have otherwise been lost on a Kickstarter page. Many people you meet on the street will never have heard of Kickstarter. How did we resolve this? I am very good at taking my business on the road. I love to meet new people and chat. Which is kinda rare for an introverted engineer like me. What I found was that I could win people over, but I struggled to get them to provide me with feedback or backing. Lots of colleagues have backed, but not in the numbers we need so far. A lot of time and effort goes into meeting face to face - the return on investment is not quite as compelling though.
4. Family. It is fast becoming a well known fact that you bring your crowd with you to Kickstarter. Your friends, family, close acquaintances, your pets. Anyone. The harsh reality is that convincing your friends to part with the minimum donation is one thing, but getting them to spread the word can be slightly trickier. EVEN if you are good at your job at promoting your 'idea', this might not transfer as well through others mouths. You must consider pre-writing tweets and status updates for your buddies so they don't have to remember all your enthusiastic rantings. Give them a fighting chance to spread the word on your behalf. We have done this and seen lots of like and shares as a result. Not enough though. What we noticed was that when it comes to asking for help - most of us are scared to do it. Therefore we don't expect it of others either. Human nature. There is also a fine line between badgering people and asking your mates to 'do a good thing' for you. I found myself 'pledge swapping' [that's promising to pledge on friends charitable endeavours in return for a pledge on mine], phoning friends individually, emailing them and explaining what it was I wanted them to do...  
5. Tell Me I'm Great. Reviews and articles written on your behalf by magazines, newspapers, businesses and personal blogs are apparently a large source of potential backers. I have yet to see this. The problem I faced was, I teed up a number of articles to be written ahead of launch day, but they could not help until they saw the page on Kickstarter. It was then I realised that having a landing page would have been a great asset. The projects bare essentials and a link to send interested writers to. As it turns out, many of the websites I wrote to never came through with their promises, or just didn't return my website messages, emails or phone calls. It is then you realise that raising funding to make people happy isn't enough today. You have to be a story! A real bit of news for people to read.

Writing this guide and experience log has been quite useful for me. I will be changing my Kickstarter page slightly to display my personality more [which is that I am delightful] and describe my angle with more focus [which is gratitude needs to be practiced. What better tool than a mobile phone]. 

Thanks again for reading. 

Day Eighteen - 15% I need HappiJar

I hit the wall today. If HappiJar was an actual working app then I would have emptied it of all my happy encounters and then some by this afternoon... I had visions of me vibrating myself through the ground whilst shaking out all my HappiButtons lol.

I guess all the hard work and energy I've poured into this campaign has just started to catch up and ask hard questions of my faith that we can get funded in time.

I'm sure that all Kickstarter project managers go through this. But how many make it out the other end successfully? Not many I'm willing to wager.

We gained 2 more backers and opened up a few more opportunities by talking to networks and pouring my heart out to whoever would listen. Normally in situations like this I would never contemplate failure. I am and will forever be a fighter to the end. Yet my mind is considering how best to deal with a soul crushing defeat.

12 days left. 15% Funded. A come back here would be epic on a grand scale. Minstrels would sing songs about us and the tales would be infectious.

I love a good fight, but what feel I have stumbled upon is the long tortuous digestion of my idea within the stomach of the almighty Sarlac Pit [Return of the Jedi].

Is there a return? Of course there is. So long as there are a few hours left, we can still do this. Let's see what tomorrow brings.

Happiness and gratitude. Happitude.

Day Seventeen - 15% Updates!

Today has been a nexus of changes. 

1. Lots of advice from strangers on Facebook and Twitter who are trying to will us on to victory.
2. New t-shirt reward made up. Hoping to drag in a few more backers who want some physical gifts.
3. Clothing designer [ex-Kickstarter] is designing us a one-off tee for our project :)
4. 2 new artists HappiButton sets. THEY ARE GORGEOUS! Check em out.

If our backer activity graph is going to be flat-lining until our Kickstarter time is up, then we are going down FIGHTING!! We have 2 weeks left and 24 hrs in each day. Are we sleeping? No... we are terminators. 

...But there is no coming back. 

Lessons Learned:

1. Seriously. If you spot a great Kickstarter project and NEED to collaborate with them. Go after it!
2. Keep chatting to your friends and backers. You need all the support you can get.